Faulty by Design: A Psychological Examination of How Our Decisions Are Guided and Made

In this talk, we will examine the psychological variables influencing decision making and highlight how these factors affect a user’s performance navigating the many decisions embedded in our products and services. The heart of the problem is that the act of complex decision making often exceeds our thinking capacity. To accommodate this resource shortfall, the mind regularly employs a wide array of simplifying heuristics and biases that are typically “good enough” for the more mundane aspects of life but that result in less-than-optimum decisions in critical situations. And while we design assuming a logical, rational decision-making agent, we will also address the debilitating effects of emotions on decisions. Building on this psychological foundation, we will offer examples of how user experience designers can address these issues. You will learn how to facilitate more effective decisions through a variety of design practices.